


The Space Between

by madamecrimson



Series: Anything Like That [7]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Watcher Entertainment, Watcher Entertainment (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:41:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22932739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamecrimson/pseuds/madamecrimson
Summary: After work, Shane had gone home and Ryan had driven to his place to pick up Mari. Sara and she wouldn't tell Shane and Ryan where they were going, but they were going to catch a Lyft there and then head back to Mari's later that night."What is it like a club or a coffeehouse or a--" Ryan had asked Mari as they pulled up in front of Sara and Shane's apartment.Mari had silenced him with a soft kiss to his neck, pulling back to gaze at him pointedly. "Sweetie, you and Shane have your secret stuff, Sara and I have ours."
Relationships: Background Shane Madej/Sara Rubin - Relationship, Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej, background Ryan Bergara/Marielle Scott
Series: Anything Like That [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622158
Comments: 8
Kudos: 51





	The Space Between

She gave him a salacious wink as the two of them stepped out of the car and walked toward the door. There were so many implications behind that that it made Ryan's head spin. Ryan texted Shane that they arrived, trying to still his hands. The door opened suddenly, startling Ryan enough so that he jumped back. 

"He doesn't think _I'm_ a demon, does he?" Sara asked, looking up at Shane. 

"It wouldn't surprise me," Shane replied, smirking down at Sara and then at Ryan. 

Ryan felt his face flush, slightly sheepish at his reaction and the fact that Shane's expression was making his knees feel weak. 

"I don't know if that's an insult towards me or him but..." Sara said, lighting smacking Shane on the arm. 

Sara's phone buzzed then. "The Lyft's almost here," she announced. 

Mari grinned, gently tugging Sara out the door by the wrist, and lightly shoving Ryan into the apartment before she shut the door. Ryan stumbled inside, mere inches away from Shane. A painfully familiar feeling crawled its way up Ryan's spine, as Shane's proximity was both too close and too far at the same time. 

"Sara made popcorn," Shade told him, and Ryan was thankful for the break it gave his overthinking brain. 

Ryan sniffed the air, eyes widening before he smiled. "She got the recipe from Mari," Shane explained. 

Ryan felt warmth bloom in his chest at the thoughtfulness before he gestured toward the couch with a nod of his head. "Ready to relive the shittiest game of bowling in the history of bowling?" 

Shane rolled his eyes. "45 is not that bad," he defended as they headed over and sat down. 

"Yeah, for an eight year old," Ryan teased. "Maybe you're the one who needed the velcro shoes all along." 

Shane placed a hand over his heart in mock offense. "Those were a gift!" 

"Just what I always wanted, some kid's worn out smelly shoes," Ryan deadpanned. 

Shane chuckled as he turned on their episode of Tourist Trapped. He lifted up the bowl of popcorn, setting it on his thigh for the two of them to share. 

_The video opened with Ryan introducing his role on the show as the host who appreciated the more popular tourist attractions._

"That rooster was huge," Ryan commented, gesturing to the screen with a handful of popcorn. 

"It only looks huge because _you_ were the one sitting on it," Shane returned. 

"I'm average height!" Ryan practically squeaked. 

_The video intro continued, with both of them narrating about the LA area before it cut to a shot of them driving to their first location of the day._

_"Now before I expose us to some actual culture, we're going to be be visiting one of your funny little tourist spots, right?" Shane had asked, turning to face Ryan._

_"Yeah, it's a place I've been looking at for awhile. I've seen them zipping around town. I've always wanted to get on top of one, and now I feel like you're curious, what I'm about to take us to," Ryan stated._

Ryan swallowed thickly. It had been an odd choice of wording but he had wanted to pique Shane's interest. Looking at the way Shane's lips parted and a light blush crossed his cheeks before he quickly transformed his expression into one of skeptical curiosity, Ryan was forced to face just what sort of interest he was after. He shifted slightly on the couch, his knee brushing up against Shane's. He froze where he sat, but neither of them moved to change positions. 

_Ryan led Shane to a Hollywood tour bus, to which Shane expressed a reluctant willingness to go along with the activity._

Shane's hand slipped into the popcorn bowl and he felt something in his chest clench, watching himself put on a bit of a show, knowing that he would gladly go anywhere Ryan asked. He was loathe to admit that six seasons of ghost hunting was an awfully long time for a nihilistic skeptic.

_"This is Sasha Baren-Cohen's house," Ryan pointed out in the video._

_"You think he ever just walks about full "Borat"? Shane inquired, turning to face Ryan._

_"I actually wore a mankini myself after I saw that movie," Ryan revealed._

Shane felt his mouth go dry. He remembered that moment. He recalled sitting on that tour bus, trying not to imagine Ryan in a mankini. They weren't really Shane's thing to begin with, and he had wondered at the time why Ryan had provided that bit of information. He had assumed it had just been for comedic purposes but when he looked, really looked at the way Ryan's eyes were upon him, dark and wanting, it made his breath catch. 

_Shane turned his head, looking back toward the actor's house, unable to look at Ryan in that moment._ _"He really pulls it off," Shane commented._ _Unable to bite back the question anymore, he turned toward Ryan again. "Could you--" he began._

_"I didn't," Ryan interrupted._

_"You did not--" Shane tried again._

_"No, I threw it away immediately._

Ryan felt his cheeks grow warm. They had been in such a hurry to film and edit this for the sake of their company. They weren't as controlled as they normally were in front of the camera. Ryan could tell, painfully so, and he hoped the audience wouldn't notice. As Ryan watched Shane on the screen, he could feel himself inwardly cringing at the fact that he'd blurted out that tidbit about his mankini, knowing he had tried to sound casual and not vying for Shane's attention. He tried not to squirm as he watched Shane's gaze on screen go from reluctant to intrigued to back again. He had cut Shane off to avoid suspicion that he wanted Shane to ask more, and now he sat there on the couch, so close that Shane's arm was brushing against him, trying to figure out what the other man could have been thinking. 

_The tour continued and concluded, a few jokes thrown back here and there before the next shot showed them entering the celebrity wax museum._

_Shane stood behind the Jennifer Lopez wax figure, hand resting on her shoulder, and began talking about his amazing experience of seeing her in person._

_"I'll say this about Jen," Shane began._

_"I don't feel comfortable with you holding her that way," Ryan replied, lightly pushing Shane off the figure._

_"She is one of the few celebs I've seen in person," he stated, moving to rest his other hand on her shoulder. Ryan placed his hands on his hips, his eyes gazing across the long expanse of Shane's fingers._

_"She took my breath away," Shane said emphatically._

_It was apparent that Ryan was staring at Shane's lips, and Shane had bent down from his normal height to look Ryan in the eye. The figure stood in between them, like some sort of barrier preventing them from getting too close._

_"Now compare those feelings, to the feelings you first felt when you laid eyes on your girlfriend for the first time," Ryan instructed, slipping his hands into his pockets._

Ryan winced, feeling guilty for using Sara as a scapegoat in that moment, but he had needed to deflect and his brain had scrambled to find something. As he watched himself, he could still feel his hands in his pockets, curled into tight fists, holding himself back from touching Shane when they were that close. 

_Their banter continued, Shane fumbling as he defended the fact that his attraction toward his girlfriend was far greater than when he saw Jennifer Lopez for the first time in person. The question had honestly caught Shane off guard and in that moment of filming he knew that Sara would tease him relentlessly for it afterward. It wasn't the question itself so much either, it was the abrupt transition. It was the fact that moments before, their heads had been nearly tilted towards one another, almost able to feel the other's breath on their cheeks. His mind had blanked entirely, but once he registered the words he knew he had to say something fast. Ryan, still being accusatory, told Shane that he'd rushed over to J. Lo's wax figure, and moved to model what Shane's position had been. Shane had stepped forward to defend himself, making it appear as though he wanted to demonstrate the position before Ryan got a chance to, to show him how wrong he was._

Shane felt his heart hammering against his chest. He had only moved toward the figure after Ryan had. At the time of the shoot, they were exhausted in their rush to get everything filmed and edited on time, leaving them both far more raw than normal. He'd wanted to covertly steal a touch, just a brush of the arms, a bump of the hand, something.

_The episode moved forward, with Shane lightly caressing the faces of two of the male wax figures, and pointing out the pink hue of the lips on the Steven Spielberg figure. Ryan had even told him to stop caressing one of the statues._

Ryan's stomach flipped, and he blushed all the way down to his neck. That was one part of the video that he wanted to forget. When they were filming, seeing Shane's fingers gently caress a man's face, wax figure or not, had Ryan's head alive with fantasies and thoughts that he normally tried to shove down. He'd blurted out for Shane to stop, needing to say something, or else he was afraid he would leave the museum with a boner and questions he didn't want to answer. 

_Shane and Ryan stood next to a Thor statue, with Ryan explaining that seeing Shane at his full height standing next to Thor sort of shattered Thor's heroic illusion for him. At some point, Shane bent at the knees, his hand curling around Thor's hammer._

_"Good hammer," Shane commented._

_"Okay," Ryan laughed almost breathlessly and walked away, leaving Shane with a shy little smile on his face._

Shane and Ryan both wanted to cover their eyes, but knew the other would see and probably say something. Shane had again placed a barrier between them in that part of the video, but desire burned through him and he ended up just sort of gibbering off the cuff. Ryan recalled that moment; his heart had been pounding in his ears and he felt hot all over. Shane bending down to grip the hammer had't really been all that scandalous but that's immediately where Ryan's mind had gone to. He knew that he had to get away as quickly as possible, before the camera picked up his blush, before he lunged toward Shane and did something impulsive.

_The video went on with Shane and Ryan going to Randyland. Randy talked about the way he'd set everything up, detailing the shapes of the bottles, and pantomiming what the shape was._

_Ryan copied the pantomime. "It's strangely sexual," he said, looking directly at Shane._

_Shane leaned back slightly from that comment, his skin tingly from the way Ryan's tone had dropped to a low whisper, how his smirk played on his lips. Shane then pantomimed the shape, facing Randy as he did so, unable to look at Ryan. He told Randy that he agreed that the shape of the bottle was sexual, commenting that it was almost phallic._

_"It could be, if that's where your imagination goes," Randy replied._

_"It is," Shane replied._

_"But it could also be the shape of a particularly attractive female body," Randy continued._

_"Or a big old penis," Ryan stated._

Shane felt clammy as he watched himself being almost too obvious. Of course that's where his mind had gone after Ryan had spoken to him like that. Randy pointing out that the bottle reminded him of a woman's body just further cemented the wavelength that Shane had been on in that moment. 

Ryan winced at his crude comment that followed Randy's. He'd said it on impulse, wanting Shane to hold onto his initial line of thinking. Sitting here and watching himself now, he felt incredibly stupid.

_When they finally sat down to admire the full scope of Randy's creation, they organized their chairs so that Randy was in between the two of them, and it wasn't even the last of the barriers they'd wedge between themselves for the day._

_The episode continued with the two of them eating enormous hot dogs and bowling together. Although it had been filmed in a frantic hurry, it was still evident how much they had enjoyed it. Their shoulders were relaxed, their smiles were warm, and their laughs were genuine._

_It got to the part where Ryan had Shane getting on a roller coaster after failing miserably at bowling. Ryan had known that Shane would be scared, but also felt that it would bring an interesting element to the episode. To add to that, he had gotten a guy dressed in a Snoopy costume to comfort Shane._

As Ryan sat there on the couch, Shane near enough to touch with no barrier between them, he contemplated the other part of his line of thinking for that decision. Snoopy had also been there to combat the fact that Ryan was scared. Seeing Shane wobbly and shaking after the ride, it would have been all too easy for Ryan to want to wrap his arms around him, rub over his back. So once again, he'd done something to avoid that. Watching the way Shane fell apart in Snoopy's arms made Ryan's heart clench and a wave of warmth washed over him as memories of his demonstration to Shane of giving a proper hug came flooding back. In the midst of this, he'd barely registered the fact that at some point in the current moment, Shane's hand and his hand had slid together, their fingers entwining. 

_They had spent awhile at the park, enjoying its various attractions and games, before ending their journey at a taco truck. They bit into their tacos, looking up at each other with bright eyes._

_"I'm really happy right now," Ryan had said almost dreamily as he looked over at Shane._

_"Me too," Shane replied, his mouth falling into a smile._

Shane's heart began to race, and he tentatively squeezed Ryan's hand. On the outset, they had aimed for this episode to be a travel show, combining Ryan's cheesy love of tourism, and Shane's hipster blend of the rare and the remarkable. As he watched them both on screen, Shane realized that Sara was right. This episode had been a date. He eased a little when he felt Ryan squeeze his hand back.

_The episode finished out with a review of the day, and emphatic enjoyment of the tacos._

When the video ended, they still hadn't let go of the other's hand. 

"We should do this again," Ryan said. "I mean, Tourist Trapped will probably be pretty popular," he clarified quickly. 

Shane nodded. "Yeah, if it's in the budget." 

The spent the rest of the night in silence, watching amazing and terrifying horror films, and cheesy and awful horror films. Shane's hand and Ryan's hand continued to find one another throughout the night. At around 2 in the morning, Ryan let out a particularly long yawn. He had already begun nodding off about a half an hour ago. 

"Okay, I'm headed to bed," Ryan announced. 

Shane nodded in agreement, but neither of them moved. Shane vaguely gestured toward his bedroom. 

"If you leave here with a bad back _and_ a lack of sleep from scary movies, Mari's gonna kill me," Shane said. 

"And Sara will kill _me_ if I let Bigfoot sleep on her couch," Ryan returned. 

"Okay, first of all, neither I nor any of my ancestors, are Bigfoot," Shane complained though he rose to his feet and offered Ryan a hand. 

"That sounds like something Bigfoot would say to throw people off his trail," Ryan argued, taking Shane's hand and following him to the bedroom. 

"I highly doubt that a hulking mass of hair could just tell people he wasn't Bigfoot and be believed," Shane countered, pulling back the sheets and sliding into bed. 

"Hey, you said it, not me," Ryan replied, reaching up a hand to ruffle Shane's hair as he slid into bed as well. "You're not fooling anyone." 

"Shut up Ryan," Shane said, though there was no malice in his tone. He reached over to turn off the light. 

The room was cloaked in darkness and quiet for awhile, until Shane heard the rustling of sheets and felt Ryan's back against his chest. Shane flung his arm around Ryan's waist, almost automatically. 

"Night big guy," Ryan mumbled. 

"Night," Shane said back.


End file.
